The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-09-05
MORALITY ON THE STAGE.
Price Of Womans Success as an Actress
Facts of Interest to Stage-Struck Women.

| A group of players stood the platform OF
the railroad station at Cincinnati one day when
| was travelling that way. They were a sorry
! looking lot The chorus girls were hudded to-
| gether. chatting in low voices and drawing their
| wraps closely around them. The weather was
| bitterly cold. Many of the girls were thinly
| clad. 1t was o'clock in the morning. While
| stood looking at the bakers dozen of shivering
| young women, the comedian of the company,
| who is now famous man, came up and looking
hard at me, put out his hand:
81 scarcely knew you under all those coats"
he said genially. Are you travelling West7'
Il am. Is this the company you played with
| in New York;"
l. 1.-THE same. The ladies' apt to look a bit
rocky i'll the morning, you know-late hours,
o'clock breakfast, badly heated rooms. and
all th at2 They do look pale, don't they?
Most pathetc-looking group ever saw"
That's because most OF them good, said
the comedian. succinctly and dryly. When they
have relaxed their morals they'll be better cared
for and have pleasanter times. Il ID first
week out and nearly ali the girls to the
business. Many of them highly respecta-
BILE, but they will ali go the same way of their
predecessors. 1t is inevitable. The conditions
such that they cannot avoid it,
l glanced at him sharply At first I thought
he was guying. but it was evident the man was
glum as mourner's, and he looked at the girls
sympathetically-
"When that discussion was going on last win
ter in the New York papers about the morality
of the stage" ne continued II thought that if
some of the members of the symposium of news
paper writer's who discussed the question at such
length could travel for a few weeks with our
burlesque or light opera companies they would
find out how far wrong they were in holding
stage life as a calling in which any woman could
be respectable If she chose. have been in this
business eight years now, and always in travel
ing companies. The conditions such that it
is just impossible for a of any at
tractive qualities to remain decent the stage
as it is for man to voluntarily go without food
for two Or three days every week of his life.
The very instant girl is"
Here he stopped and put his hand on my arm,
and said:
Watch this little tableau" He drew me
half aside. A carriage rolled up to the station.
the door was yanked open and the manager of
the company, portly, red-nosed and fabby
man, stepped out He was smoking a cigar
pleasantly. He ut his hand back in the coach
and helped young woman to the ground. She
was clad in seal-skin from her neck to her heels.
we'll glcved. and her chubby face had healthy
color. She baesa little poodle in her arms, and
after giving it an ecstatic hing she passed it
to her maid. who followed her out of the
riaee. The manager paid the cabman. smiled
amicably upon his companion, and they swag
gered toward the train, with the maid walking
amiably behind them The manager nodded
half surlily to the women of the chorus who
stood there, and the girl gave them bright lit
tie nod. Most of them bowed in return in re-
cordial
chunky young woman was assisted into n parlor
car. where she had compartment to herself.
They began to lay the table for breakfast before
the train started from the station. The chorus
girls stood in the cold and gazed at the Injuries
and warmed interior of the Presently one
of the agents came along and buddled them all
back to the rear of the train where they were
bundled into rickety, chilled and ill-smeliing
car, with rafting windows and no other warmth
except that impaired by queer and far from
effective stove at one end. Here they disposed
themselves amid their miserable and dismal sur
rouudIngs as best they could for an eight hours
journey one of the worst days of the season.
THAT tells the story" said the comedian
shortly, nodding his head first toward the rear
and then toward the window where the
plump young woman was at breakfast. 1.-The
girl who came in with the manager of
the chorus when we left New York. Her salary,
like that of the other girls, was $l4 week We
had not been ont day before she saw the lnevi-
table. took the plunge, and there was the whole
story. She lives at the very best hotels has
comfortable apartments. servants In plenty,
furs. nutritious meals and the best of travelling
arrangements. The other young women. who
started with her on an even footing, live in cheap
and nasty boarding-ho1ses. are transported from
one town to the other like cattle, and they walt for
promotion with very dismal premonition that,
whenever a vacancy occurs in the upper ranks.
it is the managers favorite who will get it, and
not the girl who deserves 1t according to merit.
Virtue the stage and in travelling company
means what you in the car. The
women have to carry their own luggage, pay
their own bills. and fight the thousand extortion-
ate demands that met with at every turn In
travelling. But if they once give way the way
is clear. Some of them stand it a couple of
days. some of them week, aud Others stick out
for month or two. But the result is almost as
inevitable as death, and any man who can blame
the woman after seeing what they have to en-
dure in the way of privation. hardship and in
suit. must have heart of stone"
This instance was brought to my mind very
forcibly last night by an accidental meeting with
a young woman who went the stage two
years ago. She was the sister of classmate of
mine in college, and when she went on the stage
- hroly ha~ry oN<ho hnovf hor v,o1
to be going through the street where she lives,
and found her sitting on the front steps WELD
ing her fan vigorously. sat down and listened
to her story that have heard before, but never
in such absolute and elaborate detail. Her ways
are. of course, her own, and the morality of
theatrical managers is not my business to any
particular extent. l do not care to advertise ner
the man with whom she had dealings. but he
is about as elaborate and consummate
scoundrel I know of. The details of
the patience and ingenuity that he dis
played would have done credit to Mephis-
topheles He fatherly and benevolent
He introduced the pretty soubrette in his COM
pany to his family. and insisted upon her stop
ping week with him in his country place. He
took her to drive with his two daughters to the
park. and he careful of her reputation
that he would not allow her even to meet the
members of his company except at rehearsals
Then he performed the introductions himself
He exceedingly careful to see that she al
ways had escort to her house at night at the
play, and he held special rehearsals just for her
benefit SO that she might make as much of
a hit possible in the parts that she played
All of this went along for nearly seven months.
The girl had naturally grown fond of him,
unremitting and respectful were his attentions
But in the end she had to face the in
evitable. He placed the matter before her
as absolutely and badly though it
had been q hunk of cheese. with the
alternative of success in her profession
absolute and instant discharge. She tore up
the contract, threw it in his face and accepted
the discharge Then she Joined company in
neigh boring city. She is not particularly ro-
bust girl, and she has the gentlest and sweetest
manner in the world. She is, in fact. precisely
the sort of a woman whom any man who is half
a man would feel called upon to protect rather
than to abuse. She is of admirable family and
excellently bred. The second manager that she
went with of the gruff and hearty type.
He was going to send her to the top of the ladder
at once. He spoke to her in open and ingen-